LIFE  Ml  CM1CTER  OF  HON.  f  M.  GASTON. 


A   EULOGY. 


DELIVERED  BY  APPOISTMEXT  OF 


THE    OFFICERS    AKD    ME1BERS 


OF 


© w   *lfo nday,   *Vo v  ember    11,    18  4  4. 


BY   HOW.   R03EHT   STRANGE,   LL.  D. 


PUBLISHED     BY      REQUEST. 

O*.        '  •  » 

.>    * 

FAYETTE VILLE  : 
PRINTED  BY  EDWARD  J.  HALE. 

1844. 


ii.VitfS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


http://archive.org/details/lifecharacterofhOOstrnga 


FAYETTEVILLE,  November  15,  1844. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Officers  and  Members  of  the  Fayette ville  Ear, 
Judge  Bailey  presiding, 

Un  motion  by  Mr.  Toomer, 

?ilr.  Wright,  Mr.  Reid,  and  Mr.  W.  Winslow,  were  appointed  a  Com- 
mittee to  convey  to  the  Hon.  Robert  Strange  the  acknowledgments  of 
his  professional  brethren  for  the  able  and  eloquent  Eulogy  of  the  Life  and 
Character  of  William  Gaston,  delivered  by  him,  at  their  request,  and  to 
-solicit  a  copy  of  the  siime  for  publication. 


4 


E  U  L  O  G  Y. 


*»© 


I  come  to   praise,  and   not  to   bury.     The   latter 
hath  been  long  since  done — and  corruption  hath  al- 
ready asserted  her  irresistible  claim.     To  die  is  the 
lot  of  all  men,  and  no  one  is  denied  his  share  in  the 
inheritance  of  the  grave.     But  to  be  praised  alter 
death  is  the  property  of  a  few,   and  a  price  must  be 
paid   to   obtain   an   interest   therein.     Men  give  not 
praises  for  nothing,  either  to  the  living  or  to  the  dead. 
The  consciousness  of  every  man  that  he  hath  but  a 
short  time  to  live,  makes  him  covetous  of  a  place  in 
the  memory  of  his  fellow  men,  that  he  may  continue 
to  live  there,  when  he  shall  have  ceased  to  be  among 
them  in  the  activity  of  life.     Among  the  ancient  E- 
gyptians,  men  sought  by  the  skill  of  the  embalmer  to 
perpetuate  their  personal  identity,  after  the  immortal 
spirit  had  ceased  to  animate  the  body.     To  the  same 
end,  other  clumsy  expedients  have  been  from  time  to 
time  adopted;  and  some   with   one  price,  and  some 
with  another,  have  endeavored  to  ransom  themselves 
from  the  oblivion  belonging  to  the  grave.     But  Pos- 
terity, if  not  very  liberal  in  her  dealings  with  the  de- 
parted, is  yet  very  just,  and  will  surely  give  to  every 
one  exactly  what  he  has  purchased.     If  he  have  laid 
out  his  money  in  the   drugs  and  implements  of  the 


6 

embalmer  s  art,   Posterity  will  look  with  wonder  on 

relics  of  mortality,  that  have  contrived  to  preserve 
for  themselves  some  general  resemblance  to  living 
humanity,  after  ages  have  rolled  over  them.  It  will 
desire  to  read  the  Hieroglyphic  ks  written  on  the  cere- 
cloth, and  to  decypher  the  name  of  this  juggler  with 
Death.  If  he  have  erected  a  Pyramid,  to  be  for  his 
body  an  eternal  home,  Posterity  will  give  to  that 
Pyramid  the  tribute  of  its  wondering  gaze,  and  will 
perform  pilgrimages  to  examine,  and  write  volumes 
to  explain,  its  size,  its  construction,  the  date  of  its  be- 
ginning, and  its  purpose.  But  the  Pyramid  will 
probably,  like  the  shell  of  the  tortoise,  be  more  es- 
teemed than  its  contents.  If  his  deeds  of  beneficence 
have  left  something  behind  of  which  Posterity  is  daily 
taking  benefit — Posterity  will  remember,  as  she  takes 
the  benefit,  the  name  of  her  benefactor.  And  if  his 
life  have  been  a  volume  whose  illuminated  pages  fur- 
nish bright  examples  for  mankind,  "every  day  i'  the 
hour  Posterity  will  turn  the  leaf  to  read  it,"  and  think 
with  gratitude  of  the  gifted  author.  And  such  a 
volume  was  the  life  of  William  Gaston!  It  is  be- 
cause we  have  read  this  volume,  that  we,  my  breth- 
ren, among  the  first  and  tiniest  waves  that  shall  roll 

7  O 

in  the  ever  moving  Ocean  of  Posterity,  are  permitted 
to  murmur  out  our  gratitude,  and  lift  up  our  heads  in 
joy,  that  he  once  lived;  and  to  sink  them  in  sorrow, 
that  he  is  no  more. 

Whatever  restraints  delicacv  may  impose  among 
the  living,  no  one  is  so  stern  as  to  condemn  the  child 

O7  • 

who  lavishes  upon  the  remains  of  a  deceased  parent 


every  mark  of  kindness,  and  commemorates  with  ar- 
dent gratitude  bis  many  virtues.     And  who  but  a  few 
short  months  since  was  the  acknowledged  Father  of 
the  North  Carolina  Bar?     The  memory  of  each  of 
us   answers  the   question.     And   I   say   with   honest 
pride,  and  a  gush  of  correspondent  affection,  that  a- 
mong  no  class  of  men  are  the  ties  of  professional  re- 
lationship  more  warmly  felt,  or  more  scrupulously 
acted  upon,  than  among  the  Bar  of  North  Carolina. 
It  is  a  worthy   and  kind  hearted  family,  in  which  a 
lively  common  sympathy  prevails — where  the  most 
candid  acknowledgments  of  superior  worth  are  ever 
accorded — where  right  is  most  heartily  commended, 
and  compassion  is  ever  alive  for  error — where  the 
hand  of  kindness  is  extended  to  raise  up  the  fallen, 
and  the  mantle  of  Charity  unostentatiously  cast  over 
the  faults  of  frailty.     Can  such  a  family  suffer  the 
loss  of  such  a  bead  without  dropping  a  tear?  or  with- 
hold  from   his   memory   the    tribute   of  its   praises? 
That  portion  of  it  constituting  the  Officers  and  Mem- 
bers of  the  Fayetteville  Bar,  in  a  kindness  to  me  that 
I  have  so  often  gratefully  experienced,  hath  selected 
me,  on  the  present  melancholy  occasion,  as  the  organ 
of  its  utterance — and  I  esteem  it  not  a  task,  but  a 
holy  and  filial  duty. 

It  was  mv  fate  to  be  among  the  few  of  Judge  Gas- 
ton's  professional  family  who  had  an  opportunity  of 
seeing  him  near  the  moment  of  his  decease,  and 
deeply  did  I  feel,  while  gazing  on  his  yet  warm  re- 
mains, the  force  of  the  inspired  exclamation,  ''Lord, 
what  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him?     Or  the 


8 

sen  oF  rutin,  that  thou  visitest  him?"     If  personal  con- 
sequence was  associated  with  the  name  of  any  man 
iu  North  Carolina,  it  was  wdth  that  of  William  Gas- 
ton.    If  any  might  call  with  "voice  potential"  upon 
all  human  assistance  to  procrastinate  the  day  of  doom, 
it  was  William  Gaston.     If  any   would  be  so  missed 
from  the  organization  of  society  as  to  suspend  by  his 
absence  even  for  a  moment  its  action,  it  was  William 
Gaston.     If  nature — kind  nature — might  be  supposed 
at  all  to  sympathize  in  his  last  great  agony  with  any 
man,  it  was  with  William  Gaston.     If  any  great  moral 
convulsion  might  be  looked  for  in  connexion  with  his 
Death,  it  was  with  that  of  William  Gaston.     But  there 
he  lay  more  powerless  than  the  new  born  infant — 
and  those  lips  whose   accents  had  enchained  Senates 
and  added  years  to  the  existence  of  many  other  men, 
were  breathlessly  mute.     I  found  him  alone  with  the 
ministers  of  the  grave,  who  were  silently  decking  him 
in  that  simple  apparel  in  which  he  is  taking  the  long 
sleep  of  Death.     Earthly  hope  had  deserted  him,  and 
with  her  those  who  had  assisted  him  in  his  brief  strife 
with  Death — and  yet  I  knew  by  the  hum  of  human 
voices  in  the  distance,  that  society  was  as  busy  with 
the  hopes — the  desires — the  passions — the  pleasures 
— the  distresses  of  this  earthly^  existence, — as  though 
William    Gaston    lived.     And    the    moonbeam    that 
had  lighted  my  path,  and  the  night  wind  that,  strug- 
gling in  at  the  casement,  was  agitating  the  thin  gray 
locks  upon  his  forehead,  told  me  that  nature  was  in 
quiet.     And  the  stillness  amid  which  was  heard  even 
the  ticking  of  a  watch,  and   the  melancholy  compo- 


9 

sure   with  which  my  companions   looked   upon   the 
scene,   assured  me  that  no   great  moral   convulsion 
was  impending — and   I  was  oppressed   with  a  sense 
of  this  world's  nothingness — and  full  of  thoughts  too 
deep  for  utterance.     That  morning  I  had  seen  him 
enter  the  capitol  of  the   State,   (not  in  his  wonted 
health  to  he  sure,   hut  still  he  was  himself) — the  in- 
structive, the   cheerful  companion — the  just,  the  be- 
nevolent man — the  wise,  the  learned  Judge — the  great 
moral  machine  performing  all  its  functions  in  the  same 
beautiful  order  and  propriety  that  had  been  its  wont 
— his  memory  as  rich  as  ever  in  its  judicial  treasures, 
and  his   judgment  dealing   them   out  with  its  accus- 
tomed  accuracv.     And  now,  to  see  where  all  this  had' 
so  lately  been — dead,  blank  clay!     It  was  enough  to 
bewilder  reason,  and  make  her  reject  the  evidence  of 
the  senses.     But  reason  had  long  since  known  that 
"to  this  complexion  all  must  come  at  last,"  and  yet 
the  sad  reality  had  well  nigh   "frighted  her  from  her 
propriety." 

Those  to  whom  Judge  Gaston  was  bound  by  the 
ties  of  blood,  were  far,  far  away, — cherishing  for  him 
hopes  of  many  more  years  of  life  and  honor  and  use- 
fulness, and  confidently  believing  him  as  happy  and 
prosperous  and  well,  as  in  their  own  fond  hearts  they 
wished  him.  Doubtless  thev  think,  now  that  it  is 
past,  that  there  would  have  been  a  melancholy  satis- 
faction in  performing  for  him  many  nameless  acts  of 
tenderness,   and  in  giving  and  receiving  tokens  of  af- 

'  O  CD  O 

fection,  which  the   approach   of  Death  would  have 
suggested.     But  such  regrets  are  probably  founded 


30 

on  a  misconception  of  the  true  state  of  the  case. 
Judge  Gaston  was  one  of  those  to  whom  the  midnight 
cry,  "Behold  the  bridegroom  cometh,  go  ye  out  to 
meet  him,"  would  bring  neither  surprise  nor  terror;— 
but  there  is  reason  to  think,  that  although  his  mind 
was  deeply  embued  with  a  sense  of  the  uncertainty  of 
human  life,  and  was  even  impressed  with  a  conviction 
that  his  own  remaining  span  was  probably  short,  yet 
that  but  a  little  while  preceding  his  dissolution,  the 
assurances  of  his  physician  as  to  the  nature  of  his  dis- 
ease had  freed  him  from  all  immediate  apprehension, 
and  that  the  death  strug-ale  came  uoon  him  almost  as 
unlocked  for  as  upon  the  late  lamented  victims  on 
'board  the  Princeton.  For  he  was  conversing  with 
his  wonted  cheerfulness  with  his  friend  the  Chief  Jus- 
tice, (who  sincerely  loved  him,  and  most  affection- 
ately waited  upon  his  last  hours,)  when  a  change  be- 
ing seen  in  his  countenance,  he  was  asked  "if  he  would 
take  something  to  refresh  him."  "I  will  take  any 
thing,"  was  his  expressive  reply — and  in  another  mo- 
ment lie  was  still  forever.  He  had  then  none  of 
those  tedious  and  hard  wrestlings  with  the  great  ene- 
my,  in  which  the  encouragements,  the  counsel,  the 
consolations,  of  friends,  are  so  eminently  needed.  But 
so  far  as  these  could  have  served  he  had  them — not 
from  kindred  after  the  Hesh  it  is  true — but  from  those 
who  had  borne  with  him  the  heat  and  burden  of  life's 
weary  day,  and  amid  the  labors  and  struggles  of  that 
day  had  become  well  acquainted  with  all  his  necessi- 
ties. I  too  had  occasionally  met  Judge  Gaston  in 
the 'great  field  of  life,  and  in  speaking  of  him,  in  part 


11 

I  speak  what  I  do  know.  I  have  seen  him  at  the 
Bar — on  the  Bench— in  our  State  Legislature,  and 
in  the  social  circle;  and  it  is  no  disparagement  to 
others  to  say,  that  in  none  of  those  various  depart- 
ments have  I  met  his  superior-  He  was  an  able  and 
eloquent  advocate — a  sagacious  and  learned  judge — 
a  most  discreet  and  intelligent  legislator — a  ripe 
scholar — charming  and  brilliant  in  his  powers  of  con- 
versation, in  which  wisdom  and  learning  were  sea- 
soned with  wit  and  anecdote.  His  benevolence  even 
attracted  children  around  him,  and  condescended  to 
enter  into  their  childish  griefs,  pleasures,  and  busi- 
ness. He  was  courteous  to  every  one,  although  a 
dillidence  conspicuous  in  every  thing  he  did.  gave  him 
often  to  the  stranger  an  appearance  of  distant  and 
haughty  reserve.  He  was  in  short  an  ornament  to 
pur  profession — the  admiration  and  model  of  all  its 
members.  But  his  star  has  set  in  the  dark  valley  o£ 
the  shadow  of  Death;  and  we  have  met  to  speak 
mournfully  our  gratitude  for  its  past  glory — to  admire 
its  light  yet  lingering  in  the  horizon,  and  to  breathe 
out  our  hopes,  that  it  will  rise  again  to  shine  in  the 
firmament  forever  and  forever. 

The  dead  cannot  be  benefited  by  any  thing  done 
in  their  commemoration,  but  survivors  may  gather 
from  the  grave  most  useful  treasures,  as  thev  bend  o- 
ver  it  in  sorrow  for  a  decaying  tenant.  A  judicious 
dispensation  of  praise,  even  to  the  living,  is  often  em- 
inently useful,  not  so  much  to  the  subject  of  that 
praise  as  to  those  who  bestow  and  those  who  hear  it. 
I  believe  no  civilized  people  under  the  sun  is  so  spar- 


1° 

ing  of  praise,  either  to  the  dead   or   to   the   living,"  as 
the  people  of  North  Carolina.     We  are  so  accustom- 
ed to  see  every  one  around  us   quietly   and  steadily 
walking  in  the  path  of  duty,  according  to  his  ability; 
and  our  minds  are  so  generally  embued  with  the  Gos- 
pel truth,  that   after  all,   the   most  Highly   gifted  and 
virtuous  are  but  unprofitable  servants,  that  real  merit 
excites  in  us  no  surprize;  and  there  is  a  vein  of  home- 
ly wisdom  running  through  our  scattered  population, 
which,  in  connexion  with   its   sparseness,  forbids   the 
excitement  by  which  intellectual  mountebanks  cheat 
in  the  semblance  of  gold  and  precious  stones  with  the 
tinsel  glitter  of  light   and  shallow   accomplishments 
coupled  with  bold  assumption  and   confident  preten- 
sion.    Still,  praise  judiciously  bestowed,  is  like  money 
well  laid  out — while  it  enriches  others,  it  benefits  our- 
selves, and  gives  a  wholesome  excitement  to   the   in- 
tercourse of  life.      To  a  State,  her  sons  are  her  jew- 
els, even  more  emphatically  than  to  the    Roman  ma- 
tron.     The  value  of  any  thing  is  more  a  matter  of  es- 
timation than  of  fact;  and  this  estimation  is  not  the  o- 
pinion  of  one  or  two  persons,  but  the  general  opinion 
of  the  community.     Much  the  greater  part  of  every 
community  forms  its  opinion  upon  the  decisions  of  o- 
thers,  whose  means  of  judging  are  better,  or  supposed 
to  be  better,  than  its  own;  and   seldom   is   the  judg- 
ment of  each  individual  brought  to  bear  upon  a  sub- 
ject.    Hence,  when  the  people  of  South  Carolina  or 
Virginia,  or  of  any   other   State,  laud   and   magnify 
some  favorite  citizen,  echo  brings  back  the  peal  from 
other  States,  and  voices  a  thousand  and  ten  thousand 


13 

times  compounded,  fill  the  welkin  with  an  irresistible 
volume  of  approbation.     And  when  Virgil  is  praised 
who  does   not   think   of  Mantua!     And    if  any   city 
could  have  established  an  undisputed  claim    to   have 
been  the  birth-place  of  Homer,  would  she   not  have 
been  the  first  among  the  cities  of  Greece!     When  a 
State,  then,  lauds  one  of  her  own   children,  she  but 
pours  upon  him  a  flood  of  glory  to  be  reflected  back 
upon  herself  in  more  dazzling  splendor,  and  her  home- 
ly rocks  and  her  lonely  rivers  glitter  and  shine  in  the 
brightness  of  his  fame — and  men  are  attracted  by  the 
blaze,  gather  around  it,  and,  rejoicing  in  its  brilliancy, 
that  State  becomes  great  and  populous.     What  does 
not  Virginia  owe.  in   her   conspicuous  and   long  con- 
tinued position  in  this  Union,  to  the   fame   of  Wash- 
ington, and  Jefferson,  and   Henry,  and    Madison,  and 
a  host  of  others  on  whom  she  had  cast   the  prismatic 
brightness  of  her  own  praises?     And  South  Carolina, 
by    wresting   the    trumpet   from    Fame   herself,    and 
blowing  with  unceasing  blasts  the   name  of  some  fa- 
vored  son,  has  come  to  be  justly  honored  as  the  mo- 
ther of  great  men.     But  where  are  the  jewels  of  our 
own  State?     Has  she  none?     And  were  there  never 
any  to  whom  and  from  whom  she  might  give  and  re- 
ceive  this  glorious  lustre?     Alas!  although  her  jewels 
have  been  many,  she  has  seldom  or  never  turned  up- 
on them  the  full  light  of  her  countenance:  and  hence, 
although  we  who   know   her   well,  value  her   as   she 
deserves,  few  and  faint   are   those   rays   of  reflected 
glory  that  might  attract  the  eye  of  the  stranger,  and 
win  him  to  admire  and   exalt   her.      We  have   been 


11 

taunted  with  supineness,  with  being  wrapt  in  tlio  sha- 
dow of  an  intellectual  night,  and  that  for  almost  an  age 
only  the  kindling  genius  of  Gaston  has   shone   like    a 
solitary  star  amid  the  gloom  to   mark   our   existence 
among  the  States.      Men  have  gazed  upon  the  bright- 
ness of  this  star,  and  like  the    Magi  of  old,  attracted 
therehj',  have  been  led  to  inquire  of  the  distant   and. 
unknown   country    on   which   it   rose — and    William 
Gaston  has  for  years  past  been   the   very  impersona- 
tion of  North  Carolina,  and  few,  very   few,  have  spo- 
ken of  the  one  without  thinking  of  the  other.     But  as 
we  have  said,  that  star  is  now  set;  and  other  eyes  be- 
side our  own   have   missed    it   from   our  sky.      The 
death  of  Judge  Gaston  has  been  mournfully  noted  m 
many  portions  of  the  Union,  and  North  Carolina  hath 
been  honored  in  regrets  for  her  son.     It  is   not   only 
just,  but  expedient,  that  we    too    should    mourn    him, 
and  in  performing  this  pious  duty  to  the  dead,  learn 
something  of  what  is  due  to  the  living — and  by  a  fu- 
ture  more  liberal  and  just  estimation  of  our  own  in- 
tellectual wealth,   assume  our  rightful  position  among 
the  sister  States.     Praises,  too,  have  in  them  another 
value.     To   praise  discreetly   we   must  contemplate 
the  object  of  our  praise;  thus  will  we  learn  in  part  to 
copy    what   we   look   upon   and  admire — and  hence 
perhaps  the  Benevolent  Author  of  our  Holy  Religion 
has  made  the  praises  of  the  Almighty  so  large  a  por- 
tion of  a  Christian's  duty.     It  were  blasphemy  to  say, 
that  in  contemplating  the  object  of  the  present  eulogy 
we  should  find  a  faultless  model  for  imitation.     But 
of  his  faults,  if  any,  (and  doubtless  he  had  some,)  it  is 


15 

not  mine  to  speak*  Let  them  be  hidden  from  view 
amid  his  clustering  virtues,  unci  be  buried  forever  with 
his  ashes  in  his  grave.  But  let  his  virtues  live  after 
him,  and,  through  them,  let  him  speak  to  us  in  paren- 
tal admonition  and  encouragement. 

The  late    William    Gaston    was   born  at  Newbern, 
North  Carolina,  on  the  19th  day  of  September  1778, 
amid  the  heat  and  furv  of  our   Revolutionary  strug- 
gle,  and  must  of  course  on  the  daj  of  his  death  have 
been  one  of  the  verv  lew  whose  life  reached  back  to 
that  interesting   period.     His   father,    Dr.  Alexander 
Gaston,  was  a  native  of  a  town  in   the  North  of  Ire- 
land, descended  from  French  ancestors,  who  had  es- 
caped from  the  persecutions  let  loose   upon   the  Hu- 
guenots, by  the  revocation  of  the  famous  edict  of  Nantz. 
He  was  the  younger  brother  of  the  Rev.  Hugh  Gas- 
ton,  who  was  a  Protestant  Divine  of  much  distinction, 
and  the  author  of  a  Concordance  to  the  Scriptures,  a 
work  of  high  authority  among  Christians.      Dr.  Gas- 
ton  having  before  the  Revolution  become    a  resident 
of  North  Carolina,  was  no   idle   spectator   of  the  do- 
mestic strife  there  waged  between  the  friends  of  the 
old  form  of  government  and  the  advocates  of  the  new, 
but  took  sides  under  the  bias  so  common   among  his 
countrymen  of  Ireland,  and  was  a  Whig  of  1776,  not 
only  in  word  but  in  deed,  and  ultimately  fell  a  sacri- 
fice to  the  fury  of  the  Tory  party,  under  circumstan- 
ces most  remarkable  for  holy  and  heroic  devotion  on 
one  hand,  and  of  fiendish  ferocity  on  the  other.     Judge 
Gaston's  mother,  Margaret  Sharpe,  had  been  married 
to  his  father  in  Ma.v  1775,  and  more  than  six  years  of 


16 

domestic  peace  bad  passed  over  them,  marred  to  be 
sure  by  the  troubles  of  the  times  and  the  early  death 
of    their   first   son  by  some  ordinary  disease.      But 
the  subject  of  our  remarks  and  a  little  girl  had  been 
successively  sent  by  Providence  to  occupy   their  pa- 
rental affections  and  strengthen  the  bond   of  their  u- 
nion;  and  nothing  seemed  wanting  but  a  more  settled 
condition  of  their  country,  to  afford  them  a  due  share 
of  earthly  happiness.     Little  William  had   nearly  at- 
tained his  third  year,  and  it  could  not  have   escaped 
the  keen  discernment  of  parents  that  he  was  a  child 
of  promise.      Their  hopes  gathered   around  him,  and 
endeared  them  more  and  more   to   each  other.     But 
Newbern,  which,  lying  at  the  junction  of  two   noble 
streams,  the  Neuse  and  Trent,  and   thus   almost  sur- 
rounded by  water,  and  which  had  been  in  a  good  de- 
gree exempt  from  those  scenes  of  blood   and   horror 
so  common  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  was  on  the 
20th  of  August,  1781,  suddenly  invaded  by  a  party  of 
British  and  Tories,  and,  unprepared  for  defence,  eve- 
ry male  capable  of  bearing  arms,  who   was  unwilling 
to  say  "God  save  King  George,"  had  no  safety  but  in 
flight.     Dr.  Gaston  fled,  and  betaking  himself  with  o- 
then*  to  a  flat,  or  scow,  endeavored  to  cross  the  Trent 
River,  there  nearly  a  mile  in  width,  and  seek  an  asy- 
lum on   the  other   side.     His   fond   wife,   perceiving 
that  his  steps  were  marked   by   the   foe,  and   that  he 
was  pursued  with  a  murderous  purpose,  rushed  to  his 
rescue.     Using  the   proper  weapons  of  her  sex,  she 
threw  herself  upon  her  knees  before  his  pursuers,  and 
with  tears  and  sighs  entreated  for  his  life.     But  in  his 


■ 

17 

slow  moving  vessel  the  gallant  Doctor  stood  an  in- 
viting  mark  for  loyal  vengeance,  and  over  the  very 
shoulders  of  his  wife  a  hard-hearted  ruffian  dis- 
charged the  shot  which  terminated  his  existence. 

"She  came — 'twas  but  to  add  to  slaughter," 
His  heart's  best  blood  is  on  the  water! 

Thus  perished  the  father  of  William  Gaston,  an 
honored  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  his  adopted  coun- 
try: and  thus  was  a  horrible  blight  brought  upon  the 
young  and  gentle  heart  of  his  mother.  She  became 
a  widow  indeed,  and  the  same  explosion  by  which 
her  husband  was  slain,  shattered  forever  the  myste- 
rious texture  of  her  own  nervous  system.  She  was 
an  invalid  for  life,  and  devoted  the  remainder  of  her 
days  to  her  God,  to  rearing  her  orphans,  and  teach- 
ing them  to  tread  the  paths  of  virtue  and  religion. 
It  was  to  the  lessons  she  taught,  that  her  gifted  son 
mainlv  attributed  his  success  and  usefulness  in  after 
life.  She  was  represented  by  him  to  have  been  "a- 
inorig  the  noblest  of  created  beings."  With  feelings 
exceedingly  strong,  a  sensibility  he  never  saw  ex- 
ceeded— no  emotion,  no  passion,  could  ever  induce 
her  to  swerve  on  any  occasion  from  what  she  believed 
to  be  the  course  of  duty.  "Whatever  there  may  be 
of  good  in  me,"  he  said,  "I  attribute  it  to  her."  And 
it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  history  teems  with  in- 
stances in  which  the  most  conspicuous  men  of  the 
time  have  owed  their  training  to  the  anxious  and 
untiring  care  of  a  widowed  mother.  The  virtues 
and  excellencies  of  his  mother,  was  a  theme  of  which 
the  late  Mr.  Gaston  seemed  never  to  tire,  and  while 


18 

it  proves  the  sterling  qualities  of  that  exemplary  pa- 
rent, it  strongly  marks  the  virtuous  susceptibilities  of 
the  heart  of  her  son.     How  many  mothers  devote  the 
energies  of  their  lives  to  the  training  of  their  sons! 
And  yet  how  seldom  is  their  labor  of  love  repaid  with 
gratitude!      To  him,  however,  the  crowning  gratifica- 
tion of  having  achieved  the  first  honors  of  his  Alma  ' 
Mater,  was  laying  them  at  the  feet  of  his  mother  and 
feeling  conscious  of  the  maternal  pride  he  had  roused 
in  her  bosom.     But  a  mother  could  only  lay  the  deep 
and  strong  foundations   on   which   others  must  build: 
yet  on  the  depth  and   strength  of  those  foundations 
mainly  depended  the  whole  future  worth  of  the  fabric. 
Mr.  Gaston  left  his   mother's   immediate   care  at  an 
early  age,  and  acquired  the  rudiments  of  a  fine  edu- 
cation under  the  most  approved  private  instructers  of 
the  time.     In  the  Fall  of  1791,  being  only  about  thir- 
teen years  of  age,   he  was  sent  to   the    College  of 
Georgetown,  in  the  District  of  Columbia.     This  insti- 
tution was  then,  like  himself,  in   its   infancy,  and  like 
him  has  improved  its  advantages  until  it  has  achieved 
success  and   a  high   reputation.     And  how  far  they 
may  have  mutually  cheered   onward   and  supported 
each  other  in  the  road  to  fame,   I  am  unable  to  sav. 
There  the  religious  principles  he  had  inherited  from 
his  mother,  who  was  an   English   Roman   Catholic, 
were  strengthened  and  fully  developed.     And  while 
I  would  not  compromit  the  sacred  Protestant  opinions^ 
in  which  so  manv  of  us  have  been  educated,  and  as  I 
trust  in  connexion  with  the  most  cheering  of  eternal 
hopes,  I  would  not  take  advantage  of  the  occasion  to 


.19 

disparage  the  Roman  Catholic  faith — for  if  that  an- 
cient tree  had  always  borne  such  fruit  as  it  did  in  the 
person  of  William  Gaston,  few  would   be   found   to 
question  its  claim  to  be  considered   the   true  Church 
of  God.     By  the  Spring  of  1793,  the  bleak  winds  of 
the  Potomac  Valley  had  so   affected  his  constitution, 
as  to  excite  serious  fears  that  Consumption,  that  sub- 
tle and  common  enemy  of  genius,  had  marked   him 
for  one  of  its  victims.     Mr.  Gaston  was  therefore  ad- 
vised to  return  to  the  benignant   climate  of  the   Old 
North  State.     Here  the  air,  freighted   with  the   bal- 
samic influence  of  her  pines,  mingled   with   the   fra- 
grance of  the  grape,  the  jessamine,  and  the  wild  crab, 
soon  restored  health  to  his  luno-.s  and  vioor  to  his  con- 
stitution.      With   renewed  energy  he   recommenced 
his  academical  studies,  under   the    Rev'd  Thomas  P. 
Irving,  a  man  of  much  distinction  in  that  most  ardu- 
ous and  generally   most   thankless   office,  of  training 
the  youthful  mind.     In  the  Autumn  of  1794  he   en- 
tered  the  Junior  Class  at  Princeton  College,  and  was 
soon  marked  as  its   leader,  which   distinguished  posi- 
tion he  maintained  during  his  course.     In  1796  he  was 
graduated,  when,  to   use   his   own  language,   "it  was 
one  of  the  proudest  moments  of  my  life  when  I  was 
enabled  to  write  to  my  mother,  that  I  had   obtained 
the  first  honor  of  the  class."     Soon    after   his   return 
from  Princeton,  he  commenced  the  study  of  the  Law, 
in  his   native   town,  under   the   direction    of  Francis 
Xavier  Martin,  Esquire,  then  a   successful  practising 
lawyer  in  that  region  of  country,  but  for  many  years 
past,  and  now  at   a  very   advanced   period  of  life,  a 


2e 

• 

Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Louisiana.  In  en- 
tering upon  the  study  of  the  law,  Mr.  Gaston  sacri- 
ficed a  purpose  which  he  had  somewhat  cherished, 
of  adopting  the  military  profession — cherished  per- 
haps from  an  almost  instinctive  and  half  defined  im- 
pulse, to  be  the  avenger  of  his  father's  blood,  and  of 
his  mother's  blighted  hopes.  In  1798  he  commenced 
the  professional  career,  afterwards  so  brilliant  and  so 
long  continued.  And  here,  my  younger  professional 
brethren,  let  us  mark  the  friendly  light  which  his  ex- 
ample casts  upon  the  untrodden  path  that  lies  before 
you.  He  did  not  set  out  with  the  mere  sordid  pur- 
pose of  making  money — "of  wringing  from  the  hard 
hands  of  peasants  their  vile  trash  by  any  indirection" 
— by  the  mere  exhibition  of  his  parchment  and  a 
showy  display  of  light  and  superficial  acquirements, 
in  the  absence  of  every  thing  justly  entitling  him  to 
their  confidence  and  qualifying  him  to  conduct  their 
affairs.  Even  as  a  lawyer,  he  did  not  consider  him- 
self a  mere  human  animal,  destined  to  get  through 
life  in  the  appropriation  to  himself  of  as  large  a  share 
as  possible  of  its  sensual  delights  and  pecuniary  ad- 
vantages, but  as  a  moral  and  intellectual  being,  des- 
tined to  live  an  eternal  life,  of  which  his  present  state 
was  a  beginning — inconsiderable  in  itself  it  is  true, 
but  pregnant  with  immense  results  for  the  future; — 
that  he  owed  to  himself  and  to  his  family  to  labor  not 
merely  for  the  bread  that  perisheth  even  in  his  pro- 
fession, but  for  a  fame  that  might  live  after  him,  and 
be  to  them  a  richer  inheritance  than  the  charter  of 
an  Earldom; — that  he  owed  it  to  the  profession  he  had 


21 

adopted,  as  far  as  in  him  lay  to  render  it  not  a  mere 
system  of  trick   and  artifice,  where  the  cunning  and 
least  scrupulous  should  reap  the  largest  profits — but 
a  noble  and  ennobling  science,  embracing  those  eter- 
nal  principles  of  right  and  wrong;   those  great  truths, 
moral  and  metaphysical,  of  which  the  Almighty  was 
himself  the  Author,  and  which  it  had   been  the  busi- 
ness of  the  great  and  good  through  all  ages  to  search 
out  and  illustrate — to  remember  that  it  was  a  profes- 
sion not  destined  to  perish   with    himself,  but  that,  in 
countless  succession,  others  without   number  were  to 
follow  him,  whose  happiness,    usefulness,   and    moral 
dignity,  would  materially  depend  upon  the  footmarks 
he  might   leave  in   the    road  before    them; — that   he 
owed  it  to  his   clients,  whose    confidence   he   sought, 
and  on  whose  patronage   he   waited,  not  to   bring  to 
their  service  a  mere  smattering  in  his  profession,  and 
an  impudent  confidence  that  success  might  crown  per- 
chance his  blundering  efforts;  but  by  patient  industry 
to  acquire  a  skill  by  which  he  might  confidently  warn 
them  when  they  were  wrong,  and    achieve  for  them, 
with  the  utmost  certainty  that  belongs  to   any   thins 
human,  success  when  they  were  right; — that  he  owed 
it  to  his  country,  by  all  in  his  power   to   render   her 
administration  of  justice  pure,  dignified,  and  enlight- 
ened, liberal  and  effective.      To  these,  noble  ends  he 
directed  the  energies  of  his  vigorous  mind   with  un- 
wearied  application.      To   accomplish   them,  he   did 
not  suppose  that  the  Temple  of  the  Law   must  be  a 
gothic  edifice,  consisting  of  stifl  mathematical  figures 
and  marked  with  black  letter   inscriptions — but  that 


22 


all  the  arts  and  sciences  should  be  invoked  to  give  it 
strength  and  beauty.     That  law   should   be   forever 
divorced  from  Eloquence  and  Poetry,  and   that  law- 
yers should  be  ashamed  to  speak  well  lest  it  might  be 
supposed  they  were  incapable  of  thought — were  such 
barbarian  fancies  as  dwelt  uot  in   his   brain;   but  he 
iustlv  deemed,  that   truth   loses   nothing   from   being 
gracefully  set  forth,  and  that   although   in   a   state  of 
nature  we  may  not  be  shocked  at  the  sight  of  naked 
men,  yet  in  a  civilized  community  it  is   not  beneath 
the  dignity  of  the  most  intelligent   to   arrav   himself 
with  taste  and  even  with  elegance; — that  if  men  have 
heads  they  have  hearts   also;  and   that   under  all  cir- 
cumstances each  is  entitled  to  be  regarded  as  one   of 
the  constituents  of  the  intellectual  man.     Hence,  while 
he  was  content  that  Coke  and   his   black  gowned  as- 
sociates might  lay  the  foundations  and   build    up   the 
walls  of  his  edifice,  he   desired   that   Chatham,   and 
Burke,  and  Sheridan,  and   Tope,   and   Diwden,   and 
Johnson,  and    Shakspeare,   and   others   such,   should 
carve  its  cornices,  its  columns,  and  pilasters;  and  that 
the  wild  flowers  of  Poetry,  from  every  clime,  should 
be  planted  around  to   beautify,  to   freshen   its   atmo- 
sphere, and  fill  it  with  fragrance.     And  he   was   un- 
willing that  even  Music  should  be  expelled   from   its 
sacred  recesses,  but  chose   rather   that  they   should 
echo  every  pleasant  sound,  from  the  solemn  organ,  to 
the  light  song  of  the  Troubadour.     An  American  law- 
yer  surely  is  not  meant  to   be  a  mere  black  letter  in- 
dex— but  a  noble   spacious   cabinet  of  intelligence, 
where  every  one  may  seek  for  and  find  something  to 


2-3 


his  taste.     Nor  shall  he  be  a  licensed  pickpocket,  to 
appropriate  the  money  of  every  thoughtless,  idle,  or 
passionate  mortal  he  may  meet,  by  virtue  of  his  parch- 
ment from  the  Supreme  Court,  without  possessing  the 
qualities  of  which  that  parchment  testifies — but  labor- 
ing for  the  public  with  his  might  and  main,  and  elab- 
orating and  combiuing  for  the  common  good,  theolo- 
gy, metaphysics,  mechanics,   eloquence,   poetry,  and 
every  thing  else  that  can  delight  and  ennoble  the  hu- 
man understanding,  he  is  not  unjustly  an  unstinted  pen- 
sioner   upon   public   contribution.      So   thought    Mr. 
Gaston;  and  while  he  devoted  himself  with  untiring 
zeal  to  the  sterner  labors  of  his  profession,  his   spare 
moments  were  cheered  and  improved  with   the  Poe- 
try of  Queen  Anne's  age,  (the  British  Augustan  age, 
as  it  has  been  called,)    and   other  like  intellectual  re- 
pasts; and  even  while  riding  to  his  Courts,  has  the  in- 
tellectual man,  in  the  pursuit  of  its  own   enjoyments 
in  the  pages  of  Scott  and  others,  so  far  forgotten  the 
physical,  as  to  expose  it  to  numberless  and  sometimes 
serious  hazards.     He  was  also  a  model   to   us  all   in 
the  happy  control  of  his  temper,  by   which,  through 
the  long  course  of  his  practice,  he  avoided  those  pain- 
ful professional  discords,  which    so   many  of  us  have 
cause  with  shame  to  remember,  even  in  our  own  short 
experience. 

Legislation  is  in  our  country  so  intimately  connect- 
ed with  the  administration  of  law,  and  a  knowledge 
of  existing  laws  is  so  very  necessary  in  altering  them 
or  making  new  ones,  that  it  is  not  wonderful  so  many 
of  our  profession  constitute  portions  of  our  Legislative 


bodies.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Gaston  was  often  a  mem- 
ber of  our  State  Legislature,  and  first  in  1800,  as  a 
member  of  our  State  Senate.  In  1308,  Mr.  Gaston 
was  chosen  from  the  District  in  which  he  resided,  an 
Elector  for  President  and  Vice  President  of  the  Unit- 
ed States.  In  1813  he  took  his  seat  in  Congress,  by 
the  election  of  his  District,  and  acted  with  the  Fede- 
ral party  for  the  four  years  he  continued  in  Congress, 
as  indeed  he  did  during  his  life.  This  period,  em- 
bracing the  greater  part  of  the  last  War  with  Great 
Britain,  was  one  of  intense  interest,  and  afforded  fine 
opportunities  for  talent  on  either  side  to  display  itself; 
and  accordingly,  though  but  a  young  man,  with  but  a 
limited  term  of  service,  Mr.  Gaston  greatly  distin- 
guished himself  even  among  the  great  spirits  of  that 
time,  and  the  enduring  reputation  that  he  left  behind 
him,  and  that  still  lingers  in  the  Halls  of  the  National 
Legislature,  declares  him  a  man  of  no  common  pow- 
ers. His  speeches  upon  the  Loan  Bill  and  the  Pre- 
vious Question,  advantageously  shewed  forth  those 
abilities  which  carried  him  triumphantly  through  so 
many  trials.  The  peculiar  cast  of  his  political  opin- 
ions must  be  spoken  of  by  me  in  the  same  measured 
and  cautious  terms  in  which  I  have  spoken  of  his  re- 
ligious. Upon  these  subjects  it  is  perhaps  ray  mis- 
fortune to  have  differed  with  him.  I  cannot  there- 
fore applaud,  and  I  will  not  condemn.  On  both,  his 
sentiments  were  sincerely  and  conscientiously  enter- 
tained,  and  were  alvvavs  maintained  and  defended 
with  wonderful-  ability.  But  his  temper  was  too 
kind  and  amiable  for  him  willingly  to  engage  in  any 


25 

disputation  to  which  a  sense  of  duty  (to  which  he  al- 
ways yielded)  did  not  impel.     So  benevolent  and  so- 
cial was  his  disposition,  that  no  jarring  chord  was  ev- 
er struck  by  him  in  the  company  of  an}T  for  whom  he 
felt  respect;  and  with  great  adroitness  would  he  give 
a  playful  and  humorous   turn  to   conversation,  when 
disputes  were  likely  to  arise  between  others.     Claim- 
ino-  for  himself  the  right  to  think  for  himself,  he  cheer- 
fully  accorded  to  others  the  same  privilege.     Among 
the  trophies  of  Mr.  Gaston  in  our   State  Legislature, 
may  be  reckoned  the  act  of  1808,  regulating  the  de- 
scent of  real  estate,  the  act  of  1818,  establishing  our 
Supreme  Court  upon   its   present   system;   and   able 
speeches  upon  subjects  innumerable.     He  might  have 
had  a  seat  upon  the  Supreme  Court  Bench  upon  its 
first  organization,  but  by  his  own  wish,  as  I  think,  his 
name  was  not  openly  proposed,  and  his  distinguished 
relative,  the  late  Chief  Justice  Taylor,  the  late  Chief 
Justice  Henderson,  and  the   late   Judge  Hall,  consti- 
tuted the  first  Supreme  Court  Bench,  remarkable  a- 
hke  for  judicial  learning  and  integrity.     It  is  hardly 
a  digression  to  say,  that  between   himself  and   Chief 
Justice  Taylor,  who  married  his  sister,  (that  other  or- 
phan of  the  bloody  Trent,)  a  most  unwavering   and 
devoted  friendship  existed  during  many  of  the  later 
years  of  the  former,  in  which  was  strikingly  illustrat- 
ed the  strong  attachment  with   which   Mr.  Gaston's 
heart  was  wont  to  fasten  on  its   object.     After  Judge 
Taylor   ascended   the    Supreme    Court   Bench,    Mr. 
Gaston  pursued  his   profession   with   great   zeal    and 
brilliant  ^uccees,  and  even  after  the   death   of  Judge 

4. 


Taylor,  until  1833,  when  the  death  of  Chief  Justice 
Henderson  opened  a  vacancy,  which,  yielding  to  the 
solicitations  of  his  friends,  he  consented  to  fill.  The 
deference  felt  for  his  fame  and  talents  by  those  who 
had  preceded  him  on  the  Supreme  Court  Bench,  and 
with  whom  he  had  become  associated,  would  have 
accorded  to  him  the  place  of  Chief  Justice.  But  his 
modesty  and  sense  of  expediency  induced  him  to  de- 
cline— thinking  it  better  to  establish  the  precedent 
that  seniority  in  commission  should  confer  that  high 
distinction,  than  that  a  way  should  be  opened  for  e- 
lectioneering  and  intrigue,  for  jealousy  and  disap- 
pointment. Soon  after  his  attainment  of  a  seat  upon 
the  Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  his  native  State, 
a  Convention  assembled  to  amend  her  Constitution. 
Of  this  Convention  his  native  County  elected  him  a 
member.  Here  he  was  as  usual  "the  observed  of  all 
observers" — the  master  spirit  of  that  great  and  distin- 
guished body.  His  identification  with  the  State  was 
thus  completed.  By  a  remarkable  coincidence  his 
exertions  had  mainly  prevented  the  removal  of  the 
Seat  of  Government  from  Raleigh,  and  contributed 
to  fix  it  there  for  ages  to  come,  by  the  enduring  and 
magnificent  pile  of  native  granite  which  has  been  e- 
rected  into  the  State  House.  So  that  in  times  to 
come,  if  a  visiter  to  the  State  shall  seek  the  Halls  of 
her  Capitol,  his  very  tread  will  wake  up  in  echo  the 
name  of  William  Gaston.  11*  he  look  into  her  organic 
law,  he  will  find  it  impressed  with  the  genius  of  Wil- 
liam Gaston.  If  he  turn  to  her  legislative  records, 
there  also  will  he  read  the  name  of  William  Gaston. 


•27 


If  he  search  among  her  judicial  lore,  its  pages  will 
bear  the  name  of  William  Gaston.  In  his  attainment 
of  a  seat  upon  the  Supreme  Court  Bench,  the  inter- 
ests of  the  public  and  those  of  Judge  Gaston  coinci 
ded.  All  admitted  him  without  a  rival  in  fitness  for 
that  branch  of  public  service,  considering  his  moral, 
intellectual,  and  physical  qualifications.  His  pecunia- 
ry condition  was  now  such  as  to  render  large  profes- 
sional receipts  no  longer  necessary  to  him,  and  to 
meet  his  wants,  a  moderate  salary  was  all  that  would 
be  required  in  addition  to  the  income  of  his  estate. 
His  advancing  age  made  rest  needful  to  him; — and 
the  approach  of  eternity  demanded  all  advantages  for 
preparation  to  meet  it.  •  All  these  considerations  were 
happily  met  in  the  office  he  now  filled.  The  salary 
of  the  office  was  a  handsome  one — and  the  calm  and 
passionless  discharge  of  his  judicial  duties  gave  rest 
to  his  body,  and  health  to  his  soul,  as  was  most  hap- 
pily expressed  by  himself  in  his  very  last  letter  to  his 
eldest  daughter.  "To  administer  Justice,"  said  he, 
"in  the  last  resort — to  expound  and  apply  the  laws 
for  the  advancement  of  right  and  the  suppression  of 
wrong,  is  an  ennobling  and  indeed  a  holy  office;  and 
the  exercise  of  its  functions,  while  it  raises  my  mind 
above  the  mists  of  Earth-born  cares  and  passions,  into 
a  pure  and  serene  atmosphere,  always  seems  to  im- 
part fresh  vigor  to  my  understanding,  and  a  better 
temper  to  my  whole  soul."  Willi  such  views  and 
sentiments,  and  from  such  a  position,  it  is  no  wonder 
that  his  exit  more  resembled  a  translation  than  a  death 
— and  that  the  space  between  his  active  usefulness  a- 


28 

mono-  men,  and  bis  entrance  upon  the  more  extensive 
and  untold  duties  of  another  world,  should  have  been 
contracted  to  a  span.  That  his  bright  career  was 
thus  suddenly  ended,  has  already  been  told.  He  died 
about  8  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  the  23d  day  of 
January  1844. 

Such  are  some  of  the  things  that  have  been  done 
bv  one  of  our  profession  to  challenge  our  admiration 
and  excite  us  to  emulate  them.     The  story  is  before 
us,  and  each  must  draw  for   himself  the  appropriate 
moral.     We  have  thus  seen  Mr.  Gaston,  since  we  left 
him  lisping  his  mother's  name  in  infancy,  and  still  re- 
peating it  in  childhood  and  youth,  chiefly  as  a  public 
man: — and  are  led  to  admire  him  as  we  would  some 
bright  particular  star  whose  glory  was  distant  and  un- 
attainable to  us.     But  it  is  in  the  social  circle,  and  by 
the  domestic  hearth,  that  the  hearts  of  those  who  have 
seen  him  there,   melt  in  sympathy  and  gush  out  with 
affection  towards  him.     In  society  he  partook  with  a 
cheerful  heart  (subordinate  at  all  times  to  the  regula- 
tions of  his  Church)  of  whatever  delighted  other  men. 
And  while  he  seldom  turned  his  back  upon  the  fes- 
tive board,  he  gave  no  countenance  to  intemperance 
or  excess.      His  own  table  was  always  hospitably  and 
liberally,  but  unostentatiously  spread,  and  where  he 
was  present  the  intellect  was  ever  more  treated  than 
the  palate.     The  understanding  and  the  imagination 
was  each  allowed  its  portion;  and  an  appropriate  and 
well  told  anecdote  was  never   wanting  to  amuse  and 
illustrate  the  topic  of  conversation.      The  filial  is  the 
first  domestic  relationship  in  which  Providence  places 


29 

us,  and  the  manner  in  which  its  duties  are  discharged 
is  generally  a  sure  indication  of  how  those  which  fol- 
low will  be  filled.     And  accordingly,  as  Judge  Gaston 
was  a  most  exemplary  son,  he  proved  in  after  life  a 
kind  brother,  a  most  devoted,  faithful,  and  affection- 
ate husband,  an  indulgent,  vet  wise  and  conscientious 
Parent.     He   was   thrice  married,   but  survived   by 
many  years  the  last  of  his  wives.     His  sister  }7et  lives; 
and  several   children,   who  have  wrell  repaid  his  pa- 
rental care,  were  left  to  mingle  their  voices  with  the 
wailinos  which  followed  him  to  the  tomb,  and  to  stand 
with  pride  beneath  the   overshadowing   greatness  of 
his  name — a  name  that  descends   not  with  his  bodv 
to  the  Earth,  nor  passes  to  the  Heavens  with  his  as- 
cending spirit;  but  remains  behind  like  the  odour  of 
departed  flowers — marking  forever  the  place  where 
he  has  been. 


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